Pay for universal health care with a tax on fast food

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matt1985

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I saw Howard Dean on CNBC and he said he would pay for universal health care with a carbon tax:confused:. Wouldn’t it be a better idea to put a tax on McDonald’s, Subway and Wendy’s? They are the root cause of a lot of health problems for Americans. They provide low cost ways to have a heart attack.

I went by a subway, and they were advertising a huge philly cheese stake that must have had 3000 calories. If people have to pay an excise tax for beer or cigars, than there should be a tax put on the philly cheese stake that subway offers. Then, the funds collected from the tax can be put in to “Universal Healthcare”. And I blame corporations who peddle junkfood to poor communities also.

What I find to be immoral about socialized medicine is that it socializes the punishment for irresponsible behavior. I don’t abuse cigarettes, alcohol and food. I shouldn’t have to pay a lot extra taxes to pay for health care for people who do.

I think the end result of socialized medicine is bad health care for everybody like there is in the UK. It isn’t that I want to deny somebody a visit to the Dr. In the UK i read that cancer drugs are rationed because there aren’t enough to go around. People should be very skeptical about democratic health care proposals.
 
Last year, Americans spent $170 billion on fast food. Its a surprising number. But health care cost over $2 trillion. Even if fast food was taxed so heavily that it cost 10x what it does today, it still wouldn’t cover the cost of universal health.
 
I have seen studies that show that universal health care pays for itself, once you take the billionaire CEOs of insurance companies out of the mix.
The insurance companies profit by charging people for insurance, then refusing health care when it’s most needed.
There is no reason we can’t have decent health care for everyone, paid for by taxes just like Medicare. It just needs to be non-profit, like fire departments, police, and schools. Think what our police system would be like if it were for-profit!
Citizen: “911! I need help! Someone’s trying to break into my house!”
Operator: “Your Safety Insurance number, please?”
 
matt1985 said:
I saw Howard Dean on CNBC and he said he would pay for universal health care with a carbon tax:confused:. Wouldn’t it be a better idea to put a tax on McDonald’s, Subway and Wendy’s? They are the root cause of a lot of health problems for Americans. They provide low cost ways to have a heart attack.
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Actually it would make more sense to simply ban McDonald’s, Subway, and Wendy’s. That way we eliminate the root cause of a lot of health problems and heart attacks. Further, we wouldn’t even have to worry about universal health care.
Doesn’t that make more sense than collecting money from a root cause in order to doctor its evil effects? :rolleyes:
 
Exactly! If the Feds were so concerned about the dangerous effects of smoking tobacco, all tobacco products should be banned, right? But they can tax the heck out of such products, and it’s all about money and power, not about the welfare of the citizenry.
Viki63 said:
I have seen studies that show that universal health care pays for itself, once you take the billionaire CEOs of insurance companies out of the mix.
The insurance companies profit by charging people for insurance, then refusing health care when it’s most needed.
There is no reason we can’t have decent health care for everyone, paid for by taxes just like Medicare. It just needs to be non-profit, like fire departments, police, and schools. Think what our police system would be like if it were for-profit!
Citizen: “911! I need help! Someone’s trying to break into my house!”
Operator: “Your Safety Insurance number, please?”
Click to expand...
Beg to differ. There is a HUGE reason why we can’t have (Government aided or run) health care for everyone: Greed and corruption.

Government run universal health care is pie-in-the-sky. Answer this question:

What program has the Government run that has ever met budget and accomplished it’s stated goals?

Answer: None. Medicare and Medicaid are both failing, both is serving the patients and in terms of losing billions of dollars to corruption and waste, from the government officials to (many) doctors who run every test that Medicare will pay for regardless of whether the patient needs it or not.

So before you diss the “billionaire CEOs”, (and billionaire is a stretch, methinks, in the plural) take a look at the “Millionaire Government officials” who can’t manage Medicare and Medicaid as it presently stands. You’ll see there’s not much of a difference, except the Government officials make the rules by which they legally fleece and abandon the citizenry.
 
matt1985 said:
I saw Howard Dean on CNBC and he said he would pay for universal health care with a carbon tax:confused:. Wouldn’t it be a better idea to put a tax on McDonald’s, Subway and Wendy’s? They are the root cause of a lot of health problems for Americans. They provide low cost ways to have a heart attack.

I went by a subway, and they were advertising a huge philly cheese stake that must have had 3000 calories. If people have to pay an excise tax for beer or cigars, than there should be a tax put on the philly cheese stake that subway offers. Then, the funds collected from the tax can be put in to “Universal Healthcare”. And I blame corporations who peddle junkfood to poor communities also.

What I find to be immoral about socialized medicine is that it socializes the punishment for irresponsible behavior. I don’t abuse cigarettes, alcohol and food. I shouldn’t have to pay a lot extra taxes to pay for health care for people who do.

I think the end result of socialized medicine is bad health care for everybody like there is in the UK. It isn’t that I want to deny somebody a visit to the Dr. In the UK i read that cancer drugs are rationed because there aren’t enough to go around. People should be very skeptical about democratic health care proposals.
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Whats irresponsible about eating that philly sandwich. It might be what someone on a road contruction crew needs to get them through the day, especially if they are hypoglycemic like me. Corporations peddle to the public what the public wants. When I go out to eat I wat poeple food not rabbit food. While socialized medicine is disturbing enough, having food police is much more disturbing.
 
mapleoak said:
Actually it would make more sense to simply ban McDonald’s, Subway, and Wendy’s. That way we eliminate the root cause of a lot of health problems and heart attacks. Further, we wouldn’t even have to worry about universal health care.
Doesn’t that make more sense than collecting money from a root cause in order to doctor its evil effects? :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
Then you would put the restaurant business out of business. When people eat out they want to eat what tastes good.
 
aspawloski4th said:
Then you would put the restaurant business out of business. When people eat out they want to eat what tastes good.
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So then the government isn’t really concerned about peoples’ health then? If it was, they would simply shut good tasting food joints down, rather than try to make a profit off of them through taxation under the guise of concern for folks’ health under a socialistic and discriminatory program.
 
I think we ought to put a tax on birth. After all, every single baby born is going to die eventually and almost every one of them is going to need health care.

Peace

Tim
 
Orogeny said:
I think we ought to put a tax on birth. After all, every single baby born is going to die eventually and almost every one of them is going to need health care.

Peace

Tim
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:rotfl:

Pardon me, but I don’t want the government policing my food intake. Occasional intake of “fast food” is not the problem.

:newidea: Instead of taxing fast food eaters, health nuts should get a tax break. For every mile run on a treadmill…and they should submit their menus with their tax returns so that the IRS can make sure they are eating healthy.
 
Orogeny said:
I think we ought to put a tax on birth. After all, every single baby born is going to die eventually and almost every one of them is going to need health care.

Peace

Tim
Click to expand...
Actually, more creative would be to give tax credits for every mile walked to work and to tax driven miles sufficiently enough to pay for a universal plan to address health problems resulting from the sedentary ride to work each day.
 
mapleoak said:
Actually, more creative would be to give tax credits for every mile walked to work and to tax driven miles sufficiently enough to pay for a universal plan to address health problems resulting from the sedentary ride to work each day.
Click to expand...
Yeah, but even healthy people will need healthcare. Perhaps we ought to tax them extra for all of the foot and knee problems they will develop.😃

Peace

Tim
 
I don’t think there is anything morally wrong with having a philly cheese stake, I just don’t see why we need to force people who choose not to eat one everyday in to providing people who do with a subsidy.

And we will probably see that many people in states where “medical” pot is allowed, will develop health problems from smoking pot that will cost tax payers a ton of money. Perhaps there Republicans should offer an ammendment to any democratic health care reforms that would exempt people who used medical pot from recieving socialized healthcare for problems that came about from pot smoking.

My attitude is that people can eat or smoke what ever they want as long as they don’t ask other people to pay for their choices.
 
One word when it comes to health people. Genetics!!! My wife’s family is chocked full of health fanatics and the typical memeber drops dead of a heart attack at 68. My family’s diet is ultra fat laden and we last into our 80’s and 90’s. With that said , aside with commonsense like not smoking, I’m not really interested in changing my diet, after all my genes will have go well into my 80s, and as for my wife it’s a waist of time because she will likely drop like a fly before 70.
 
matt1985 said:
I don’t think there is anything morally wrong with having a philly cheese stake, I just don’t see why we need to force people who choose not to eat one everyday in to providing people who do with a subsidy.

And we will probably see that many people in states where “medical” pot is allowed, will develop health problems from smoking pot that will cost tax payers a ton of money. Perhaps there Republicans should offer an ammendment to any democratic health care reforms that would exempt people who used medical pot from recieving socialized healthcare for problems that came about from pot smoking.

My attitude is that people can eat or smoke what ever they want as long as they don’t ask other people to pay for their choices.
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You don’t believe much in genetics don’t you? As for medical pot, it is to aleviate pain from already terminal illnesses like cancer. Any health problems it is likely to cause is far byond a moot point ,and I say once some is to a terminal state easing pain is of upmost importance.
 
mapleoak said:
Actually, more creative would be to give tax credits for every mile walked to work and to tax driven miles sufficiently enough to pay for a universal plan to address health problems resulting from the sedentary ride to work each day.
Click to expand...
You don’t value time much don’t you? I don’t have the time to walk to work especially in bad weather!
 
mapleoak said:
Actually it would make more sense to simply ban McDonald’s, Subway, and Wendy’s. That way we eliminate the root cause of a lot of health problems and heart attacks. Further, we wouldn’t even have to worry about universal health care.
Doesn’t that make more sense than collecting money from a root cause in order to doctor its evil effects? :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
I assume this is sarcasm - banning fast food.
 
matt1985 said:
And we will probably see that many people in states where “medical” pot is allowed,
Click to expand...
Michigan is now one of them
will develop health problems from smoking pot that will cost tax payers a ton of money. Perhaps there Republicans should offer an ammendment to any democratic health care reforms that would exempt people who used medical pot from recieving socialized healthcare for problems that came about from pot smoking.
Click to expand...
The whole reason for legalization of pot is to be able to have something to tax. Right now it is legal for medical reasons, but only until people become more accustomed to it being legal. Eventually it will be legal for any reason just like tobacco. It will then be an excellent source of tax revenue for the state with outrageously high percentages.
Certainly the government isn’t concerned with making people happy by allowing them to enjoy some pot now and then. There is always an ulterior motive.
 
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